Life of Pi

Yann Martel

Character List

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Piscine Molitor Patel

Piscine Molitor Patel is the protagonist and, for most
of the novel, the narrator. In the chapters that frame the main
story, Pi, as a shy, graying, middle-aged man, tells the author
about his early childhood and the shipwreck that changed his life.
This narrative device distances the reader from the truth. We don’t
know whether Pi’s story is accurate or what pieces to believe. This
effect is intentional; throughout Pi emphasizes the importance of
choosing the better story, believing that imagination trumps cold,
hard facts. As a child, he reads widely and embraces many religions
and their rich narratives that provide meaning and dimension to
life. In his interviews with the Japanese investigators after his
rescue, he offers first the more fanciful version of his time at
sea. But, at their behest, he then provides an alternative version
that is more realistic but ultimately less appealing to both himself
and his questioners. The structure of the novel both illustrates
Pi’s defining characteristic, his dependence on and love of stories,
and highlights the inherent difficulties in trusting his version
of events.

Though the narrative jumps back and forth in time, the
novel traces Pi’s development and maturation in a traditional bildungsroman,
or coming-of-age story. Pi is an eager, outgoing, and excitable child,
dependent on his family for protection and guidance. In school,
his primary concerns involve preventing his schoolmates from mispronouncing
his name and learning as much as he can about religion and zoology.
But when the ship sinks, Pi is torn from his family and left alone
on a lifeboat with wild animals. The disaster serves as the catalyst
in his emotional growth; he must now become self-sufficient. Though
he mourns the loss of his family and fears for his life, he rises
to the challenge. He finds a survival guide and emergency provisions.
Questioning his own values, he decides that his vegetarianism is
a luxury under the conditions and learns to fish. He capably protects
himself from Richard Parker and even assumes a parental relationship
with the tiger, providing him with food and keeping him in line.
The devastating shipwreck turns Pi into an adult, able to fend for
himself out in the world alone.

Pi’s belief in God inspires him as a child and helps sustain
him while at sea. In Pondicherry, his atheistic biology teacher
challenges his Hindu faith in God, making him realize the positive
power of belief, the need to overcome the otherwise bleakness of
the universe. Motivated to learn more, Pi starts practicing Christianity
and Islam, realizing these religions all share the same foundation:
belief in a loving higher power. His burgeoning need for spiritual
connection deepens while at sea. In his first days on the lifeboat,
he almost gives up, unable to bear the loss of his family and unwilling
to face the difficulties that still await him. At that point, however,
he realizes that the fact he is still alive means that God is with
him; he has been given a miracle. This thought gives him strength,
and he decides to fight to remain alive. Throughout his adventure,
he prays regularly, which provides him with solace, a sense of connection
to something greater, and a way to pass the time.

Richard Parker

Pi’s companion throughout his ordeal at sea is Richard
Parker, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Unlike
many novels in which animals speak or act like humans, Richard Parker
is portrayed as a real animal that acts in ways true to his species.
It can be difficult to accept that a tiger and a boy could exist
on a lifeboat alone, however, in the context of the novel, it seems
plausible. Captured as a cub, Parker grew up in the zoo and is accustomed
to a life in captivity. He is used to zookeepers training and providing
for him, so he is able to respond to cues from Pi and submit to
his dominance. However, he is no docile house cat. He has been tamed,
but he still acts instinctually, swimming for the lifeboat in search
of shelter and killing the hyena and the blind castaway for food.
When the two wash up on the shore of Mexico, Richard Parker doesn’t
draw out his parting with Pi, he simply runs off into the jungle,
never to be seen again.

Though Richard Parker is quite fearsome, ironically his
presence helps Pi stay alive. Alone on the lifeboat, Pi has many
issues to face in addition to the tiger onboard: lack of food and
water, predatory marine life, treacherous sea currents, and exposure
to the elements. Overwhelmed by the circumstances and terrified
of dying, Pi becomes distraught and unable to take action. However,
he soon realizes that his most immediate threat is Richard Parker.
His other problems now temporarily forgotten, Pi manages, through
several training exercises, to dominate Parker. This success gives
him confidence, making his other obstacles seem less insurmountable. Renewed,
Pi is able to take concrete steps toward ensuring his continued
existence: searching for food and keeping himself motivated. Caring
and providing for Richard Parker keeps Pi busy and passes the time.
Without Richard Parker to challenge and distract him, Pi might have
given up on life. After he washes up on land in Mexico, he thanks
the tiger for keeping him alive.

Richard Parker symbolizes Pi’s most animalistic instincts.
Out on the lifeboat, Pi must perform many actions to stay alive
that he would have found unimaginable in his normal life. An avowed
vegetarian, he must kill fish and eat their flesh. As time progresses,
he becomes more brutish about it, tearing apart birds and greedily stuffing
them in his mouth, the way Richard Parker does. After Richard Parker
mauls the blind Frenchman, Pi uses the man’s flesh for bait and
even eats some of it, becoming cannibalistic in his unrelenting
hunger. In his second story to the Japanese investigators, Pi is Richard
Parker. He kills his mother’s murderer. Parker is the version of
himself that Pi has invented to make his story more palatable, both
to himself and to his audience. The brutality of his mother’s death
and his own shocking act of revenge are too much for Pi to deal
with, and he finds it easier to imagine a tiger as the killer, rather than
himself in that role.

The overall message of the chapter is that although religion (organized faith) can aid us and stabilize us and nourish us spiritually in the short term, it is not a viable long-term answer to our spiritual questions, and will ultimately kill us mentally and spiritually.

Pi, who is named for an irrational idea that is used to pose and solve scientific whims, presents two parallel stories--he describes as one's perception of the world--to explain his survival on the Pacific for a remarkable 227 days. This is itself a momentous reflection of one's theological beliefs. This novel promises to make one believe in God, and it does. The animal story, with its far-fetched aspects, is much more difficult for the investigators to believe than the human story, as Pi says clearly annoyed, they want a story they already ... Read more→